Expandable retainer

ABSTRACT

A letter or material holder made of a flexible resilient member in the form of a spiral and biased in a contracted position. Means are provided to secure the ends of the resilient member to allow it to expand and contract.

United States Patent [72] Inventor John C. Swingle 643 W. Liberty St., Medina, Ohio 44256 [21] Appl. No. 657,641 [22] Filed Aug. 1, 1967 [45] Patented Jan. 5, 1971 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 563,476, July 7, 1966, now Patent No. 3,391,794, dated July 9, 1968.

[54] EXPANDABLE RETAINER 5 Claims, 9 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl 211/120 [51] A47g 29/00 [50] Field ofSearch 211/120; 272/70, 57.1; 5/264B [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 439,210 10/1890 Thome 211/120 Kawate Lotterer Weiskopf Neale Marsh Gluecksmann. DArcy Phillips et al. Merten Wallin Primary Examiner-Roy D. Frazier Attorney-Fay, Sharpe and Mulholland Fiester 211/120X 21l/120X 21 1/l20X 211/120X 5/264(B) 5/264(B) 272/57.1X 5/264 211/120X ABSTRACT: A letter or material holder made of a flexible resilient member in the form of a spiral and biased in a contracted position. Means are provided to secure the ends of the resilient member to allow it to expand and contract.

PATENTEDVJAN 51971 SHEET .1 0F 2 I INVENTOR. JOHN c. SWINGLE ATTORNEYS EXPANDABLE RETAINER This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 563,476 filed July 7, 1966, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,391,794 issued July 9, 1968.

This invention relates to an expandable paper holder, and in particular, a paper holder comprised of a flexible resilient material. It may be in the form of a spiral whose ends are connected so that its central axis forms a rounded, closed geometric figure which will expand upon the insertion of paper, such as magazines, letters and the like between the individual spirals and return to its original shape when the material is removed. Alternately, the axes of the spiral may be a simple curve or a straight line. In this case the resilient material would be connected to a support.

Magazine racks, letter holders, record holders and other flat object retainers, referred to hereinafter as material holders, usually have rigid configurations which enable them to accept only a given maximum quantity of material. When a large quantity of paper is desired to be placed in the holder, it usually must be stuffed in at odd angles and the result is an unsightly, inefficient retainer. This is a natural result since conventional letter holders cannot readily expand to accommodate additional material. Furthermore, some letter holders, if overweighted with material, will become unstable and subsequently fall and spill its contents. Usually these holders, also because of their rigidity have difficulty in grasping small quantities of material.

Other paper holders, while they are not absolutely rigid, still have serious disadvantages. An example of such a paper holder is a combined paperweight and penrack by I. W. Haysinger U.S. Pat. No. 298,379. It generally consists of two or three stationary supports with a spiral wire secured therebetween. While a limited amount of flexibility is allowed within the spiral wire, it can only hold a limited volume of material since such material must fit between the stationary supports. That is, the total amount of available space is constant.

The A. S. Greenwood U.S. Pat. No. 384,439 also shows a spiral mounted on a base, however, it is flattened against its base and securely fastened to it by means of numerous threads of fine wire or small staples. In order to insert something into the card rack, an individual rung is bent and the card inserted. Each spiral rung is essentially independent of the rest since no one rung cooperates with the others. It is clear from the disclosure and the drawings that it has only very limited expansion possibilities.

It would be desirable to have a material holder which would securely hold a single piece of material and yet have the capacity to expand and hold voluminous amounts of the same.

The present invention provides a material holder which will securely retain both a single sheet of paper as well as substantial amounts of material. It is very flexible in order that it may expand to accept material several times its own weight and volume. It is stable enough to hold voluminous material in an upright position. It is resilient in order that it may return to its original size when the material is removed from it.

Structurally the present invention is formed of a spiral of resilient material either with its ends connected, so that its axis forms a closed geometric shape or with its ends attached to a support. The spirals are maintained perpendicular to their supporting base. When the ends of the resilient member are connected the innermost portions of the spiral abut each other so that a single paper may be securely held in place. As bulk papers are added to the holder, it simply expands due to its own inherent flexibility to accommodate the paper and yet securely hold it due to its natural resilience and tendency to return to its original shape.

Moreover, no matter what amount of material is inserted into the holder, it must always be placed, due to the inherent shape of the holder, parallel to the other paper. In this manner, there are always semicircular portions at either end of the holder to support the paper therein.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional taken through 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 shows a method of securing the spiral to a base.

FIG. 5 shows the attaching means for the ends of the spiral.

FIG. 6 is a top view ofa second embodiment of this inventron.

FIG. 7 shows a front view of the support.

FIG. 8 is a top view ofa third embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 9 indicates cross sections of the material forming a spiral.

A spiral 10, illustrated in FIG. 1, has a central axis which forms a closed, rounded geometric figure. In its contracted shape the figure is a circle. A base 11 supports the spiral 10 and is attached to it by a stud and bracket arrangement generally indicated as 12. The spiral 10 may have rings with a tapered diameter or of different sizes when this is desired.

The stud and bracket arrangement 12 is shown more clearly in FIG. 4. A stud 15 has an enlarged stud head 16 and a narrower neck 17. The bracket 18 has an opening 19 which is ofa greater diameter than a second opening 20 and the stud head 16. The second opening 20 is larger than the neck 17 but smaller than the head 16. In operation the head 16 is simply inserted through the enlarged opening 19 and the neck 17 is slid into the opening 20.

As observed from FIGS. 1 and 5 the spiral 10 has its ends attached at 21. The means shown in FIG. 5 for attaching the ends is precisely the same as that shown in FIG. 4 for attaching the spiral 10 to the base 11. That is, studs 23 having an enlarged head and a narrower neck portion fit into holes 25 having two sections, one large enough to receive the enlarged head, and the other smaller than the diameter of the enlarged head, but larger than the neck of the stud 23.

It should be clear at this point that the method of attaching the spiral 10 to the base 11 and the method for attaching the ends of the spiral 10 are but one of an innumerable number. That is, the ends of the spiral 10 may be attached by any suitable means such as welding, soldering, clamps, wiring, etc. The same may be said with respect to the attachment of the spiral 10 to the base 11. The method shown of doing so is merely by way of example. In fact, the spiral 10 operates perfectly without any base and may set loosely on any surface.

The reason for using the stud and hole for attaching the ends of the spiral 10 is to make it readily detachable so that the spiral may be collapsed and fold into a small package for either shipping or storage.

The characteristics of the spiral are such that if the ends are disconnected, it would collapse into a cylinder. That is, as shown, the spiral in FIG. 1 is in an expanded position and the natural tendency of the spiral is to contract.

This characteristic is important in the retention of smaller amounts of letters, magazines and other materials which are inserted into the holder.

As seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, if a single envelope 28 is inserted among the spirals 10, the envelope must separate and thereby further expand a set of opposing individual loops of the spiral 10. Because of the expanded position of the spiral 10 and its tendency to return to its contracted position, it will push on the letter 28 from both sides and thereby securely hold it in place. As more material is added to the holder, the spiral 10 will simply expand in an outward direction as shown by the arrows in FIG. 2. All material which is added subsequently must be parallel to the envelope 28 since obviously other material cannot intersect it. In this manner, the outermost portions of the spiral 10 away from its supports 12 will remain in a generally semicircular configuration which act as supports for the material contained in the holder. This is true regardless of whether the supports 12 and the base 11 are present or how much material is placed in the holder 10. The resiliency of the paper holder 10 is such that it may expand to five or six times its closed diameter and still be stable.

FIG. 3 is a sectional taken along section 3-3 of FIG. 2. It shows the letter 28 secured by the spiral 10. As explained above, the individual rungs of the spiral 10 due to their expanded position and natural resiliency and tendency to return to their unexpanded state securely hold the letter 28 in positron.

FIG. 6 indicates an alternate embodiment of the material holder and includes a support 30 which is connected to the resilient member 31. In this case the ends of the spiral member are not connected but are attached to, in some manner, support 30. One method that has been found successful in which to attach the spiral 31 to the support 30 is by cutting grooves 37 and 38 in the bottom of the support 30 at an angle from the front. This is shown in FIG. 7. In this way the last loop or spiral may be simply inserted or screwed into place. These grooves would only be at the bottom of the support 30 and would not be visible from the top. The support 30 may be constructed of wood, metal, plastic, or various other materials.

If desired, the resilient member 31 may be formed in a semicircle and have each of its ends attached to the same block or alternately, as shown in FIG. 8, have two supports 35 and 36, each attached to one end of the resilient member 31. While FIG. 8 shows two resilient members placed between the supports 35 and 36, different members may be used.

The material holder of FIG. 8 is shown in an expanded position. The normal empty position of the material holder shown in FIG. 8 would be with the individual spirals abutting each other rather than expanded.

It is also anticipated that the embodiments of FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 could be combined. That is, thedevice of FIG. 8 could have an additional spiral wire looped on the outside of each support in a semicircular fashion similar to that shown in FIG. 7. The semicircular loop, having both of its ends attached to the support, would provide more room for materials as well as additional support.

All of the embodiments discussed above have the inherent ability to expand several times its unexpanded length and hold voluminous amounts of material. Simultaneously, the material holder also has the unique quality of, when empty, contracting to a very small item which may be easily stored or shipped. The spiral used in this invention has a relatively small coefficient of elasticity. That is, it is a weak spring which is easily stretched to permit large expansions and contractions. In fact, if the spiral is held in a vertical position by one end it will not even support its own weight without sagging downwardly. Moreover, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 if the supports 35 and 36 were supported horizontally at a distance from each other without any support for the spiral 31 it would also sag. However, the spiral is strong enough to retract to a contracted position where the individual loops will contact one another if the spiral is supported on a generally horizontal surface or one at a small angle.

FIG. 9 indicates three of the numerable cross sections which are readily useable with the present invention for the spiral 10. They are respectively shown as (A) tubular cross section, (B)

square cross section, and (C) a circular cross section. The material itself may be a metal, generally a steel or aluminum, but any material which has a natural resiliency such as plastics that are expandable and that do not readily reach their elastic limit is readily useable with the present invention.

For ease of description, the principles of the invention have been set forth in connection with but the preferred illustrated embodiments. It is not my intention that the illustrated embodiments nor the terminology employed in describing them be limiting inasmuch as variations in these may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Rather I desire to be restricted only by the scope of 'the appended claims.

Iclaim:

I. A material holder comprising:

a flexible resilient member in the form of a spiral expandable to several times its unexpanded length and biased in a contracted position;

the ends of said resilient member being held to a substantially vertical face of at least one independently moveable support while the remainder of the resilient member is free to expand and contract horizontally; and

said support and resilient member being supported on a base, individual loops of said spiral bein positioned in a direction perpendicular to the base an contacting one another when in an unexpanded position so that said material holder will securely support individual pieces of material between the individual loops yet expand to accommodate voluminous amounts of material and return to its original configuration when said material is removed.

2. The material holder of claim 1 wherein both ends of said resilient member are attached to a common support thus forming a generally semicircular configuration in which the adjacent loops are contacting one another at their centermost points.

3. The material holder of claim 2 wherein grooves are located in the bottom of said support in which the ends of said resilient material are located.

4. The material holder of claim I wherein the ends of said resilient member are attached to separate supports independently movable relative to each other and said resilient member forms a substantially closed cylinder in which the individual loops are abutting each other when in an unexpanded position.

5. The material holder of claim 4 wherein the ends of said resilient member are embedded in grooves in the bottom of said supports. 

1. A material holder comprising: a flexible resilient member in the form of a spiral expandable to several times its unexpanded length and biased in a contracted position; the ends of said resilient member being held to a substantially vertical face of at least one independently moveable support while the remainder of the resilient member is free to expand and contract horizontally; and said support and resilient member being supported on a base, individual loops of said spiral being positioned in a direction perpendicular to the base and contacting one another when in an unexpanded position so that said material holder will securely support individual pieces of material between the individual loops yet expand to accommodate voluminous amounts of material and return to its original configuration when said material is removed.
 2. The material holder of claim 1 wherein both ends of said resilient member are attached to a common support thus forming a generally semicircular configuration in which the adjacent loops are contacting one another at their centermost points.
 3. The material holder of claim 2 wherein grooves are located in the bottom of said support in which the ends of said resilient material are located.
 4. The material holder of claim 1 wherein the ends of said resilient member are attached to separate supports independently movable relative to each other and said resilient member forms a substantially closed cylinder in which the individual loops are abutting each other when in an unexpanded position.
 5. The material holder of claim 4 wherein the ends of said resilient member are embedded in grooves in the bottom of said supports. 